Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Calls for governments to provide the means to make ‘treatment for all’ a reality

London/Johannesburg, 30 September 2015—The international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) today applauded the new guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) that all people be offered antiretroviral treatment immediately after testing positive for HIV. But MSF warned that turning this new recommendation into reality would require dramatically increased support from donors and governments.

“Test and treat can turn the tide on HIV, but to work as a tool to control the epidemic it will require drastic changes and greatly increased investment. HIV care has to move out of clinics and into the communities with mobilized, empowered and engaged people living with HIV that actually are part of the response. This will need effort and money”, says Dr. Tom Ellman, director of MSF’s Southern Africa Medical Unit. “At the United Nations last week, world leaders agreed to a Sustainable Development Goal to make AIDS history within 15 years, but they are going to need to show that they’re serious about it. Nobody’s going to end AIDS with business as usual.”

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will hold its replenishment conference next year, which will be the first test of donors’ commitment to using the best science to treat all people living with HIV and further decrease the rates of HIV transmission worldwide.

Experience from MSF’s HIV programmes shows that over the last 10 years, one third of people who were diagnosed with HIV, bu not eligible to start treatment, never returned to the health facility. Offering such individuals treatment once they test positive could substantially reduce the number of people who may never return.

“In order to reach as many people as possible, as soon as possible, simplified models of care and self-management strategies are needed that allow people to take more control over their own treatment and care,” said Dr Marc Biot, MSF’s operational coordinator for HIV. “It’s no longer only a question of when to start people on treatment, but also how to help people stay on treatment for life and to maintain ‘undetectable’ levels of virus in their blood. We need to make sure HIV treatment fits into people’s lives better, just like with any other chronic disease in industrialized countries.”

MSF started providing HIV treatment to people in developing countries in 2000, and today more than 200,000 people receive treatment through MSF programmes.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Governor Charlie Baker honored the recipients of the Manuel Carballo Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Service, the Eugene H. Rooney, Jr. Public Service Award, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Mentoring Award, and Commonwealth Equity in Governance Award at the Massachusetts State House.

This year, the beneficiary for the Commonwealth Equity in Governance Award is the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS), which is being honored for their nationally recognized work to improve care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex (LGBTQI) and gender non-conforming (GNC) youth in the juvenile justice system. The criteria for this award required that the applicants show leadership in promoting equity, demonstrate a commitment to the principle of equity in the one or more areas of government operations, and achieve significant outcomes in promoting equity in agency operations.

Lisa Belmarsh, the Director of Policy and Training for DYS, said, "Undertaking a monumental training initiative and creating a LGBTQI-GNC policy truly embodies every criteria of this award. This work educates staff, improves the lives of youth, and provides stronger collaboration with families not just within DYS, but throughout the state. Every DYS employee should be proud that they are now incorporating these equity principles into our everyday work.” In fact, the Equity Project, a national organization focusing on LGBTQ youth in the criminal justice system, cites the DYS policy as one their model policies.

LGBTQ youth are over-represented nationally in the juvenile justice system. According to the Center for American Progress, even though between 5 and 7 percent of young people identify as LGBTQ, 13 to 15 percent of youth in juvenile justice systems identify as part of this population. Higher rates of homelessness, gang involvement, family rejection, and the school to prison pipeline are often cited as some causes for this discrepancy.

As part of the process to create a new policy and guidance, DYS worked with Missy Sturtevant, LCSW, Founder and Director of MaeBright Group, LLC. MaeBright specializes in working with state agencies and other organizations around LGBTQ topics by working with clients to evaluate and improve climate and services through assessment, training, and policy work. Sturtevant worked with DYS to train over 2,000 DYS employees from the Commissioner to people working in the kitchen, in addition to supporting the policy writing process. Sturtevant said that working with DYS has lead to real, tangible changes in the way DYS supports young LGBTQ people. “We know there are disproportionate rates of LGBTQ youth in juvenile justice systems. The fact that DYS has not only recognized this, but has put so much effort into gaining the competencies to serve this population is outstanding. The entire agency has committed to this process and as a result, LGBTQ youth in DYS are better cared for and better prepared to lead fulfilling lives.”

Belmarsh commended MaeBright saying, “We are so grateful for the expertise and hard work from Missy and MaeBright. They were absolutely integral to the success we’ve had in this work.”

Monday, September 28, 2015

The Director of HarvestPlus, Dr Howarth Bouis, has said that developing and delivering crops that carry essential micronutrients required by the body cells to function adequately to target vulnerable population is key to solving the global problem of micronutrient deficiencies, also known as hidden hunger. Dr Bouis, who was in Nigeria on a working visit, said this during a lecture he delivered at the Conference Center, IITA, Ibadan on Thursday, September 17, 2015. He highlighted why mineral and vitamin deficiencies constitute a significant public health problem and efforts by stakeholders to address the problem through dietary diversification, supplementation to children aged zero to 59 months, food fortification, and biofortification. He described biofortification, which is the breeding of crops to increase their nutritional value, as the most viable and cost-effective strategy in the chain of solutions adopted by policy-makers. This is so because 75 percent of target vulnerable population lives in the rural areas where they eat mostly what they plant and making the staple crops carry essential vitamin and minerals provides a great opportunity to reach them in a cost-effective and sustainable way.

Delivering a lecture entitled “Biofortification of food staples: progress and future strategy,” Dr Bouis gave account of the progress HarvestPlus has made on biofortification project from conceptualization, breeding of crops, delivering of seeds to farmers for multiplication, production, value addition to select food staples, marketing and consumption of food products in over 27 countries where the crops – cassava, maize, cowpea, sorghum, millet, wheat, rice, and orange sweet potato – have been released.

Examining the consequences of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, Dr Bouis said, “Available record shows that 375,000 children go blind every year and a sizeable others died due to vitamin A deficiency. Iron deficiency leads to impaired cognitive abilities that are not reversible while zinc deficiency increase incidence of severe diarrhea and stunting as well as over 450,000 deaths annually.”

HarvestPlus currently works in 43 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to deliver vitamin A cassava, vitamin A maize, vitamin A sweet potato, iron beans, iron pearl millet, zinc rice and zinc wheat, targeting over 2 billion affected people globally. In Nigeria, HarvestPlus has delivered vitamin A cassava to over one million households while plans have been concluded to deliver vitamin A maize from 2016.

According to Dr Bouis, over 2 million households are currently multiplying the biofortified crops while ongoing research is focused on a number of other crops, which have capacities to deliver these essential micronutrients to target population. He added that HarvestPlus’s biofortification project is gender-sensitive and has continued to empower women farmers alongside their male counterparts because of their crucial role in decision-making at household level and in nation-building.

Rounding off the lecture, Dr Bouis thanked the donors who have made biofortification possible and called for sustained efforts to enable a continuous delivery of biofortified food staples to vulnerable population across the globe until hidden hunger is eradicated and consumption of more nutritious foods become a lifestyle for all.

New York/London, 28 September 2015—As US President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Modi meet in New York today, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that US pressure for India to change its intellectual property policies could result in millions of people around the world losing their lifeline of affordable medicines. MSF relies on affordable generic medicines produced in India to do its medical work in more than 60 countries, and therefore urged Modi to stand strong and protect India’s role as the ‘pharmacy of the developing world.’

MSF displayed large billboards on trucks outside of Modi’s hotel and the Indian consulate in New York with the image of the TajMahal made out of pills and the tagline ‘Incredible India’— a take on the long-standing Indian tourism advertising campaign.

“We need affordable medicines from India to do our humanitarian work, so we are not about to let the pharmacy of the developing world be shut down,” said Dr. ManicaBalasegaram, Executive Director of MSF’s Access Campaign. “The health of millions of people around the world will be affected by the decisions Prime Minister Modi makes, so we are urging him not to cave in under overwhelming pressure from the US to change the country’s policies to favour big pharma interests.”

India’s law sets the bar higher for what deserves a patent than other countries, filtering out patent applications that cover simple changes to existing pharmaceutical products, in the interest of public health. This has allowed the robust generic competition to continue that has, for example, resulted in the price of a basic HIV treatment combination dropping by 99% over the course of a decade, from over US$10,000 to around $100.

The US government, backed strongly by its pharmaceutical lobby, is not only pressuring India to dilute its patentability standards but has been persistently pushing India to implement a drug regulatory system which essentially links registration of medicines to their patent status (patent linkage), and the Indian Ministry of Health appears to be seriously considering such changes.

“The multinational pharmaceutical industry is pushing hard to stamp out the competition from India,” said LeenaMenghaney, South Asia Manager of MSF’s Access Campaign. “India must not accept the US line that intellectual property, linked to high drug prices, is the only way to bring in investment; it’s simply not the case.

More than 80% of the medicines MSF uses to treat over 200,000 people living with HIV in its projects are Indian generics, and MSF sources essential medicines from India to treat other diseases, including tuberculosis and malaria. India also produces affordable versions of medicines for non-communicable diseases, now considered too expensive even for healthcare systems in developed countries. In the US itself, insurers, treatment providers and patients have reached a pain threshold with exploitation and price gouging by the pharmaceutical industrywith, for example, cancer medicines priced at more than $100,000 per patient, new hepatitis C medicines at $1,000 per pill, and old medicines jumping from $13.50 to $750 per pill, literally overnight.

“We urge Prime Minister Modi not to accept US demands and standards on intellectual property”, said Menghaney. “Millions of lives are at stake.”

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Following Tropical Storm Erika, which devastated the Caribbean island nation of Dominica on August 29th, Team Rubicon has deployed personnel to install lifesaving water purification systems and deliver critically needed medical supplies.A small island southeast of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Dominica experienced catastrophic flooding and mudslides leaving more than 30 dead, thousands homeless and widespread devastation.Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit declared the storm had set his country back 20 years and appealed to the international community for immediate aid.

“In order to provide effective and efficient humanitarian relief where it is needed most, Team Rubicon is collaborating with our network of partners including DEKA, FedEx, All Hands Volunteers and Global Links to deliver lifesaving health services to Dominica,” said Matt Pelak, International Operations Chief, Team Rubicon.“As a large portion of the population lives in hard to access areas due to the geography of the island, Team Rubicon’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid in austere environments will be instrumental in restoring health to vulnerable communities.”

Using a donated expedited shipment from FedEx, Team Rubicon will install DEKA’s Slingshot water purification systems to communities at risk of disease from contaminated water. Using a process called vapor compression distillation, a single Slingshot can purify more than 250,000 liters of water per year, enough to satisfy the needs of approximately 300 people. Team Rubicon will also deliver personal protective equipment and medical supplies provided by Global Links to support local hospitals and health workers in responding to the storm.

Since its inception in 2010, Team Rubicon has responded to more than 100 disasters including the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Sandy, the earthquakes in Nepal and the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. Utilizing its network of nearly 30,000 members – comprised mainly of military veterans - the organization is well-placed to respond immediately and effectively following large-scale disasters worldwide.

Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. The disaster relief organization offers veterans the opportunity to continue their service by helping those affected by disasters while regaining a sense of purpose, community and identity. For more about Team Rubicon, visit www.teamrubiconusa.org. Also see us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Each day, the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) faces the challenge of responding to humanitarian and critical health needs in some of the most remote, resourced-challenged and volatile parts of the world. MSF witnesses the real world outcomes of government policy decisions, actions and inactions on people’s health. MSF therefore takes an active interest in the eventual implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"To end epidemics such as AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030 is important and urgent. But from what we see, it's clear that a huge step change will be needed to make these goals a reality in just 15 years. There will need to be a lot more political and financial support for people's health for example, we'll need a better global R&D system, we'll need lower prices for vaccines and life-saving medicines, more trained medical staff and better access to care, including for the most vulnerable. Ultimately we need governments around the world to shift the way they look at health, to realise that a healthy population is the pre-requisite to economic growth and development, not the other way round" Dr. Mit Philips MSF Health Access Team, Advocacy and Analysis Unit

The SDGs are commendable but they are extremely broad and pie-in-the-sky. The central question is: How will governments, international institutions, civil society and the private sector translate these ambitious declarations into swift and concrete actions to meet people’s real health needs?

MSF’s key concerns:

1.The SDG ambitions are at odds with the reality of the people. Significant gaps in health care provision continue to destroy lives and cripple communities.

2.Health gains of the last 15 years are at risk.

3.Inadequate support for research and development (R&D) and lack of access to vaccines and medicines.

4.Funding for health care is being reduced.

5.Lack of political will and leadership on health.

Upcoming policies and plans based on the SDGs should put health at the core and build on the fragile gains made during the ending MDGs era.

"Many people don't realise that the majority of the world's poor and sick people don't actually live in the poorest countries, they live in countries classified as 'middle income'. Such countries cannot swiftly meet their enormous health needs without continued international support, and at present this support is being withdrawn when countries reach a certain GDP. Faced with a funding gap, some countries resort to practices that are sometime detrimental, such as charging patients for health services that they can't afford. We've witnessed the results of this first hand – with the poorest and most vulnerable people in the society simply go without healthcare at all. It will simply not be possible to meet the ambitious SDG goals to end epidemics, achieve universal health coverage and end the preventable deaths of women and children unless this paradox is resolved."

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Members of one of Brazil’s most persecuted tribes have been kidnapped by the ranchers who occupy their land, who have also attacked their community and forced women and children to flee.

The Guarani Indians of Pyelito Kuê community reoccupied a fraction of their ancestral land two days ago, and have been under attack ever since. One Guarani woman was reportedly raped and beaten up, and is now in hospital.

Earlier today gunmen employed by the ranchers attacked the Indians again. Reports indicate several were injured, with many fleeing in panic into a small patch of forest. Around 30 Indians were forced imarcinto the back of a truck and driven away. They were eventually dumped by a roadside.

Communications equipment from Survival’s Tribal Voice project, which the Indians had been using to speak to the outside world, was destroyed by the gunmen.

The Indians have endured years of living in overcrowded reserves, on a tiny plot of land trapped between a river and a sea of soya, and in the middle of a eucalyptus plantation. All their lands have been taken over by ranchers, whose gunmen regularly attack the Indians.

Community leader, Marcio, told Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, today: "It’s terrible here. The gunmen attacked us in the middle of the night. They burned all our belongings. They shot at us. Some of my relatives were injured and many people fled. I don’t know where or how they are now. We’ll do everything it takes to get our land back. We will not give up.”

This is the latest in a series of violent attacks by ranchers against Brazil’s Guarani tribe. According to Brazil’s constitution, all the tribe’s land should have been returned to it by 1993, but 22 years on, many remain landless and destitute.

We, the undersigned, are calling for a new approach to conservation, one that respects tribal peoples’ rights, for all of humanity.

Tribal peoples are generally the best conservationists; they have managed their lands sustainably for many generations. Forcibly removing tribal peoples from their land usually results in environmental damage. Such removals are a violation of human rights and should be opposed by conservationists.

The cheapest and quickest way to conserve areas of high biodiversity is to respect tribal peoples’ rights – studies show reduced deforestation and forest fire rates, and greater biodiversity, on tribal land. The world can no longer afford a conservation model that destroys tribal peoples: it damages human diversity as well as the environment.

The letter forms the principles behind a campaign by Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, to change a conservation model that is harming tribal peoples around the world.

A Guarani Indian leader has been shot dead in west-central Brazil, one week after his community reoccupied part of their ancestral land. The community had warned that they could be killed, after being surrounded by gunmen.

Semião Vilhalva was killed on Saturday during an attack on Nanderu Marangatu community, by gunmen hired by ranchers – and reportedly in the presence of government agents.

A one-year-old baby was struck in the head by a baton round, and others are reported to be injured.

The community’s ancestral land is now occupied by a ranch owned by Roseli Silva, leader of a ranchers’ union which encourages violence to keep the Indians off their land.

The Guarani alleged that Saturday’s attack was coordinated by Silva, following a meeting in which ranchers and politicians discussed how to tackle the Guarani reoccupation.

The Guarani association Aty Guasu said, “These ranchers and politicians are encouraging hatred, violence and the killing of Guarani people. They are cruel and must be punished!”

Much of the Guarani tribe’s land was stolen from the Indians decades ago. Brazil’s constitution required the government to map out all indigenous territory and return it for their exclusive use by 1993, but the majority of the Guarani’s land remains in the hands of the ranchers.

Last month, the United Nations demanded urgent action for the Guarani, amidst the ranchers’ “campaign to spread psychological terror,” but the Brazilian authorities failed to provide the necessary protection.

The ranchers are attempting to prevent the Guarani from burying Semião on their ancestral land. The Indians are demanding protection from the state to bury him and to prevent further deaths.

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, said today, “What’s particularly harrowing about this murder is that the Guarani knew their reoccupation was likely to end in death. But despite the ranchers’ promise of bloodshed, despite the many killings that have gone before, Semião’s community were undeterred. Why? Because the land they’re reoccupying belongs to them. Brazil recognized this years ago, but is too beholden to lobbyists to uphold its pledge to return the land. Until it makes good on its promise, more innocent lives will be lost.”

Explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison will attempt to break a world record by becoming the oldest person to water-ski the English Channel at age 79, alongside Lauren Bird, the youngest, at age 13, and Hannah Bird, 16, who will attempt the fastest crossing.

The challenge is part of a series of eight ahead of Hanbury-Tenison’s 80th birthday – one for each decade – to raise the much-needed funds for Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, which he co-founded in 1969.

Hanbury-Tension said: “This looks like being the toughest challenge of all for me. I’m not as strong a skier as I was and if it’s rough I may not make it.”

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, (b. 1936) is one of the founders and President of Survival International. In 1982, the Sunday Times named him “the greatest explorer of the past 20 years” and in 1991 as one of the 1,000 “Makers of the 20th Century.”

Hanbury-Tenison has been on more than 30 expeditions, including Survival’s first ever field visit in 1971 to dozens of Indian peoples at the invitation of the Brazilian government. His conclusions laid the groundwork for Survival’s international campaign for Brazilian Indians led the Royal Geographical Society’s largest expedition of 115 scientists to study the rainforest of Sarawak and was awarded the RGS Gold Medal.

Awahneechee Indians were tolerated inside Yosemite for a few decades but had to pretend to be Plains Indians for tourists in Yosemite, 1916-29.

On the 99th anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service today, August 25, Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, exposes the dark legacy of the U.S. conservation movement that led to the eviction of thousands of Native Americans from national parks – and which continues to be exported around the world today.

In an article published in U.S. journal Truthout, Survival’s Director Stephen Corry reveals how today’s conservation model was based on theories of eugenics and mistaken claims that tribal peoples’ lands are “wildernesses,” even though tribal peoples have been dependent on, and managed them, for millennia.

Oglala Lakota chief Luther Standing Bear said, “Only to the white man was nature a wilderness … to us it was tame. Earth was bountiful.”

Corry writes that many founders of the U.S. conservation movement, such as John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and Madison Grant, had links to the eugenics movement and held strong prejudices towards the native population.

Corry said, "Conservationists no longer pretend to be saving their “race,” but they certainly claim to be saving the world’s heritage, and too many of the big conservation organizations retain a supercilious attitude towards those they are destroying. Such attitudes must change."

Survival’s "Stop the Con" campaign demands a new conservation model – one that works with the original guardians of the land, rather than against them – and is asking supporters to send in their photos and videos of support.

The United Nations has appealed to the Brazilian government to take urgent action as gunmen have surrounded several Guarani communities, threatening the Indians with imminent attack.

Thousands of Guarani holding on to tiny patches of their ancestral land are living in fear of being forcibly evicted. A Guarani spokesman from one community, Tey’i Jusu, warned that the gunmen are patrolling daily, and that “conflict could break out any moment now… We’ll die for our lands if we have to.”

Several Guarani leaders have already been assassinated as a result of their quest to return to their land, stolen from them decades ago and now occupied by ranches and soya, corn and sugar cane plantations. While the ranchers profit, the Guarani are forced to endure appalling living conditions on the sides of highways or in overcrowded reserves where suicide and malnutrition are rife.

Exclusive new video footage reveals ranchers threatening military police and government agents and accusing them of attempting to “smuggle” a Guarani man back onto his own land.

More film clips are available from Tribal Voice, Survival’s groundbreaking new project which brings the latest communications technology to remote tribal communities to enable them to send video messages about their lives and their struggle to survive to a global audience in real time.

The Guarani are one of the first tribes to participate in Tribal Voice, and have described the project as their “newest weapon” in their land campaign.

Together with the Guarani, Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, is lobbying the Brazilian government to uphold its legal obligations to protect the Guarani and map out their ancestral land for their exclusive use, before more lives are lost.

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has exposed the hypocrisy in today’s conservation movement which is increasingly militarizing and targeting local populations for subsistence hunting.

Corry further exposes the inherent contradiction in the link between conservation organizations and trophy hunting. In Cameroon, WWF played an important role in carving up the forest of the Baka into national parks, safari-hunting zones and logging areas, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature welcomes clubs who encourage the shooting of endangered rhinos.

Finally, Corry questions the claim that poaching funds terrorism, which has been used as an argument for the militarization of anti-poaching squads.

Corry writes, “It’s time for the conservation industry to stop mouthing platitudes about human rights and start applying them for real. It’s time for it to come clean about its past. It’s also time for it to stop seeing criticism like this as something to be repulsed by public relations lackeys. Until then, it’s difficult to see it doing much lasting good, and there’s no doubt at all it’s hurting innocent people.”

With a daring stunt, suspended 3000ft in the air from the iconic monolith El Capitan, Survival International campaigner Tesia Bobrycki has launched Survival’s new "Stop the Con" campaign to end the destruction of tribes and their lands in the name of “conservation.”

The short film "Soar for Survival" is set in Yosemite National Park and marks the 99th anniversary of the U.S. Park Service on August 25. It follows Tesia’s personal journey to expose the dark history of the U.S. conservation movement – one that is being exported around the world.

Yosemite and other U.S. parks were home to thousands of Native Americans before they were violently evicted.

Tesia said, “I love Yosemite. But my love for the place does not excuse the fact that Native Americans were violently evicted or killed when it was created. And it does not excuse the fact that parks around the world now follow its example – from Cameroon to Botswana to India. If we continue to destroy tribes, we’ll continue to destroy nature, and we’ll continue to destroy our future. Together, we can create a new conservation.”

The campaign aims to “stop the con” in conservation that has led to violent evictions of tribal peoples to make way for national parks and mass tourism. It aims to expose the “con” that many conservation organizations willingly partner with environmentally destructive industries – which doesn’t save, but harms, the environment.

And it calls for a conservation that works not against, but with tribal peoples who are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world.

Thousands of supporters around the world will be asked to submit their own photos, drawings or videos to "Stop the Con."

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “The American national park model is still destroying people in the name of conservation, people who’ve looked after these lands, much better than we have, for thousands of years. We’re determined to end this destructive con trick which steals the land off the traditional owners to extract money from tourists who are never told the real story.”

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has launched a unique project to bring the latest communications technology to some of the world’s most remote tribal communities.

The "Tribal Voice" project is the first of its kind and allows tribal communities without internet access to send video messages about their lives and their struggle to survive to a global audience in real time.

So far, the project has been adopted by the Guarani and the Yanomami Indians in Brazil.

Mariazinha, from the Yanomami community of Rokoari, said in the first-ever Tribal Voice video, “Today the communications equipment arrived and I am very happy … If we see illegal goldminers on our land, or if outsiders try to kill us, I will be able to let everybody know … We’ll be able to communicate with people who live far away.”

The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America. Their lands and lives are being threatened by illegal goldminers who pollute their streams and bring diseases to which the tribe has developed little immunity.

One Guarani leader told Survival, “We’ve been saying for years that we need to be able to communicate with people in Brazil and around the world. This project is just what we’ve been waiting for.”

The Guarani in south-western Brazil have lost most of their lands to cattle ranches and sugar cane plantations. Their leaders are targeted and assassinated and their communities attacked by gunmen hired by ranchers. Only recently, a Guarani community was set ablaze by attackers after the tribe reoccupied parts of their ancestral land.

The Tribal Voice project aims to give tribal peoples a voice in the face of governments and multinationals who are trying to silence them, and will allow tribes to share their views on their environments, ways of life and visions for their futures.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Tribal peoples are just like us. They, too, are concerned about their quality of life and their children’s futures. Their understanding of the world is as astute as anyone’s and they have perceptive things to say about almost every aspect of life today. That’s why we’re giving tribes communications technology so they can speak to the world in real time.”